Fortunate Misfortunes
by flipstahhz
Summary: Despite it being at the expense of both their best friend's misfortunes; Yamato's glad he's met Sora. Whoever said that two wrongs can't make a right? Let's not forget the alcohol, of course. (AU. Valentine's Day Sorato One-shot with hints, or possibly more, Michi.)


****** _the long lost twin beta'd this for me..._ _little did she know that it was a dedication to her too ;)_

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 **[FORTUNATE MISFORTUNES]**

 _by flipstahhz_

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Breakups are horrible; it's what they're designed to be.

The two words 'breakup' and 'horrible' sound almost synonymous, just like how oranges are orange. Like how the sky is blue. Like how money doesn't grow on trees. Like how a man is meant to love a woman...

Of course there are contradictions here. The sky can be a blazing blood red during sunsets, you may earn money but thieves do exist to steal extra cash, oranges can rot and transform into a disgusting green or brown – or moss (if that even counts as a colour), and same gender couples are common nowadays.

This is where it gets funny...

Taichi's ex didn't cheat with another he, but another _she._

Cue laughter – well, repressed laughter. The subject, himself, happens to be browsing through his ex's social media accounts on his phone, while cursing at every image he sees of her. On the other hand, I've bitten so hard on my bottom lip that I can taste hints of my own blood on the tip of my tongue. It's proving to be painfully difficult attempting to keep my cool while the best-friend is suffering from ego deflation, as he swigs down his third glass of beer.

"Yeah, shut up," Taichi growls, running the back of his sleeve against his mouth. He coins out another beer from the bartender, then grouchily swears at me, "Asshole."

Casually tilting my head at him, I grumble, "I didn't say anything."

"I know you." Taichi huffs. "You're finding this humourous."

I smirk. "But it _is_ amusing."

If the bartender wasn't here, I'm sure he would douse me in beer. Instead, Taichi resorts to punching me in the gut. I sneer at him. "Was that necessary?"

"You're being the insensitive prick," Taichi replies with no hint of guilt whatsoever. Trust Taichi to justify himself by using violence like it's a good thing. Then again, if our roles were reversed I'd do the same thing too.

Shoulders slumped, he exhales out. "What should I do? Should I write her a letter?"

"That's gay." I caught the words I've just uttered, but I'm already laughing out loud. My ribs are aching for having had to withhold the laughter for so long. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I immediately defend myself, "Sorry Taichi. Wrong word. What I was meant to say- _SHIT!"_

"Serves you right, asshole."

"Why'd you have to kick me...on the _knee?"_

Breakups may be difficult for the person who is going through it, but let's take a step back and consider the rest of the world. The people that surround 'the broken up' are the family, the colleagues, the friends. Unfortunately, I fall under all three categories. Taichi conveniently works for the same company as I do because I had gotten him the job there. He also happens to be my childhood best-friend. And yes, Taichi's now officially affiliated to my family because my inconsiderate, stupid brother and Taichi's younger sister eloped in Hawaii two months ago without either of our permissions (don't ask, I'm still pissed off about this).

What I'm trying to say here is that since I'm in almost every aspect of Taichi's life, I have no escape from his limitless whining, complaining and bad habits. It's plausible that my ears haven't bled out. Taichi's been repeating the same thing over and over again about writing a _darn_ letter to win her back. From what I've gathered, it's hopeless. Does he think one glorious letter will make a woman change her sexuality? There's no way that's happening.

He orders another drink, then another.

By now I've already taken his wallet away from him. His face is flushed and he's waving his arms in the air like there's no gravity. I slap his arms down. If he keeps going, we'll get kicked out of this bar. I need Taichi to at least sober up before we leave. Right now, I can tell he won't be able to even make it to the cab. He'll fall face first onto the floor if he attempts to get up, and this is something I do _not_ want to deal with. In the past we've needed five people to get him out of a college party to make him leave. This time won't be any different, so I have to wait for him to get himself together.

If I had a girlfriend, I would have used her as an excuse to get away from Taichi's gloomy atmosphere. Like most of the people at bar, everybody is emitting a partnerless vibe. Some people are drowning their Sunday night away with liquor, others trying to score, and some customers have had the balls to hit on the bartenders too. The dreaded 14th of February does take its toll on the singleton population. I was looking forward to lounging on my couch and watching a movie, but Taichi had to interrupt my relaxation time. Yet, I'm out here in public to share the partnerless life with strangers and the recently broken up idiot.

"This photo was when we went to the zoo and I bought us matching lion keychains." He reminisced. "I remember when she scrunched up her nose and tried to impersonate a lion, making a cute ' _roar_ ' sound. Do you know how cute she was, Yamato? Do you, do you?"

"Delete the photo," I order.

Yes, I'm probably sounding heartless – but I knew Taichi and his ex would end as soon as I had met her. Taichi has the uncanny ability to pick up girls who are wrong for him. And, as the years have progressed, he has gotten worse. He's been dating these women out of convenience of not being alone and each girlfriend irritates me more and more.

"But it's a good photo of her. Don't you think?"

Rolling my eyes, I forcefully grab his chin and tilt it towards the monitor on the wall. "Look! Japan's winning at soccer."

Taichi's eyes spark up as he drowsily glances at the match, only to glare at me. "Not soc-soccer... _rugby_."

Even with a lot of alcohol in his system, the sports' maniac can still differentiate between the two sports. I let out a sigh of relief as I watch him survey the game with piqued, yet curious, interest. At least this will prevent him from doing something moronic.

I yawn. Watching sports has never been my thing. The only sport I ever excelled at was basketball back in middle school, until I stumbled across my dad's old guitar. From then I had quit the sport and developed a newfound love for music. Well, I like to think of it like that, but it was also partly because my little brother had turned out to be the better player than I was, which had hurt my pride more than I liked to admit.

"We've grown up, haven't we?"

I raise an eyebrow at Taichi's sudden topic change.

"What?"

Taichi's an unpredictable drunk. His abrupt mood swings always throw me off guard. He can be rowdy and the life of the party, then he can delve to the polar opposite – contemplating life and being oddly sentimental.

"You know you're old when you have to sell your dreams to make a living." His speech is no longer slurred as he surveys the rugby ball spin in the air as it is passed to another member of the same team. "I really wanted to play pro. It was my last chance, and I still wasn't good enough."

I shrug. "I think you're doing well now. The company's happy with your performance from what I've heard."

"It's not the same," Taichi sighs. "I really wish that I could go back in time and practice more instead of-"

"LIVE IN THE PRESENT!" A shrill voice breaks Taichi's talk.

The next thing I see is a woman take the vacant stool next to Taichi. She's wearing a pink and white, floral patterned dress and her silver heels sparkle as she fluidly folds one leg over the other. Her light brown eyes are wild like fire as she slams her wine glass on the table. Taichi and I get the bitter end of the stick as drops from her raspberry cocktail spray onto us, which is thankfully almost empty.

"NO REGRETS. DON'T HESITATE. GO STRAIGHT FOR IT AND- _Ajwrgh_!"

Another woman interrupts the drunk lady's preaching, clamping her hand over the drunk lady's lips. She sends an apologetic look at Taichi and I, then gives a meek smile at the displeased bartender. "Sorry. Can I please have some tap water for her?"

The bartender nods, still disgruntled by the scene the drunk lady has caused. The drunk lady is trying to resist the other woman, squirming in her chair to get some leverage. The woman is holding the drunk lady down by placing her right hand on the lady's shoulder, while her other hand is still clasped over the drunk lady's mouth.

"Don't mind her. She's..."

"Intoxicated?" I offer.

"I guess you can say that." The woman agrees, but is the least bit delighted by it. "Forgive her. She's not in the right state of mind because she got fired today-"

"No, I didn't!" The drunk lady exclaims. "I resigned! There's a difference!"

"Mimi." The woman leers at her, wiping her palm against her jeans. "Did you just lick my hand?"

"You wouldn't let me go." The drunk lady, whose name I figured was Mimi, pointed out. "It's not my fault they lost a star employee! The management team is horrible – making their workers do overtime and not getting paid for it! And don't get me started on how we never had any breaks-"

"You've told me this," Mimi's friend tells her, impatiently.

Taichi chooses to dive into the conversation, empathising his repulsion, "But that's devastating."

If I've been eavesdropping, it's only natural that Taichi has been too. However, Taichi getting involved meant it would be more strenuous, on my part, to get him out of this bar. While he's taken a break from talking about his ex, he has found a new problem – even if it happens not to be his own. And whenever Taichi is drunk and trying to solve another person's problems, that's when I know everything is going downhill.

This is great...just _great_.

"It is, isn't it?" Mimi says. She briskly holds onto Taichi's hands. "The world is an evil place, but we mustn't give up. We must keep going moving forward. There is a road to true happiness!"

If I hadn't known she was drunk, I would have sworn this Mimi person was a hippy that polluted people's minds with rainbows and butterflies. That, or was a talented motivational speaker in her past life. At least she's not screaming out her beliefs anymore. Yet, whatever she's doing, I can see that she's getting to Taichi, and I can't tell whether it's a good or bad thing. Scratch that; definitely the latter.

Mimi's friend gives a loud sigh. She's still standing behind Mimi, holding a set of car keys between her fingers. She glances at her wrist to check the time and immediately frowns. From the look on Mimi's friend's face, I can tell that she knows her unfortunate fate because our two friends seem like they're not even close to ceasing their pointless chatter.

"Want to take my seat?" I ask. "It's going to take a while."

Her eyes finally meet mine. I can feel her sizing me up and I don't really care that she is because I'd be lying to say that I'm not either. While Mimi's dressed in something to impress, Mimi's friend is attired in black jeans and a grey tank top. It may be a simple outfit, yet it worked wonders on her. It emphasised her toned upper body, her long legs, lean figure and fine bust. Her hair was short, auburn in colour and there was a unique, elegant flare at the tips. Whatever she was doing, it suited her.

"It's fine." She smiles.

I had expected her to continue standing on the same spot after she had declined my offer. Rather, she had moved over to my side of the bar, furthering her away from her drunken friend as she takes a seat besides me.

"I could get Taichi to swap with you and-"

She shakes her head. "Don't worry about it. They're deep in conversation and I'd rather be away from it because I've already witnessed her give her inspirational speech one too many times. It gets boring. Anyway, sorry for interrupting your night out with your friend."

I chortle. "Trust me. If anything, you've saved me."

She gives another of her kind smiles, leaning forward ever so slightly as she holds out a hand. "I'm Sora."

"Yamato," I say my name, giving her hand a firm shake. Since I know I'm going to be here longer, I decided to order myself another beer. "Want anything?"

"Designated driver." She dangles her car keys in front of me as proof before zipping it inside her bronze purse. "Thanks anyway though."

"So she's your Valentine's date?" I tease.

She smirks back at me. When she's about to respond, Taichi interrupts as he points back at Mimi and the redhead next to me, "Are they lesbians?"

Groaning, I roughly push him on the shoulder so that he almost falls off the stool. Mimi's blinking in bemusement and Sora's laughing lightheartedly. It's then that I see that he's got another beer in his hands. Had the idiot asked Mimi to get him a drink? Shameless, absolutely shameless.

"What is wrong with us? Why am I surrounded by lesbians? Is there something wrong with me? Am I a lesbian magnet?" He doesn't stop going, complaining, "What have I done wrong to deserve this? Is this karma for when I had that one-night stand with your hot French cousin behind your back?"

"Taichi, shut up. Stop being overdramatic over this- _What?_ " I feel sick when his what he says finally reach my brain. "You've slept with Catherine?"

Sora is continuing to laugh at my disgust.

And Mimi?

She's just slammed down her drink for the second time this evening. And yes, this time most of my face gets hit by the sticky mixed drink. While Taichi greedily grabs the last handful of serviettes at the bar and selfishly dabs himself dry, Sora slides me over some tissues from her purse.

"Thanks." I murmur.

"Do you need more?" Sora asks me, but she's already reaching inside her purse.

She hands me the tissues and as I'm about to dry the liquid that has reached part of my neck, I notice that the tissue is harder than usual. By harder, it doesn't even feel like a tissue anymore. It's not hard, but it's not completely soft either. I glance at it and scratch my head. So it's an unopened pack of tissues? Shrugging, I tear the thin plastic at the top of the small packet. As I dip my fingers into the opening, I don't find the thin dry sheets of paper.

When I stare closer to examine it, my cheeks heat up.

 _A pad?_

I glance at Sora who is looking at me in realisation, mouth gaping wide. She snatches the plastic packet from me. "Um-uh...I guess I've run out?"

"It's fine. I'm dry enough," I say, quietly.

When her hesitant eyes meet mine, I can't help but awkwardly laugh at the situation. In seconds, she collapses into an uncontrollable fit of giggles. Sora uses her hand to block her eyes from me, making a great act at pretending to hide in shame. It's quite endearing, actually. There's something about her that makes me feel like I've known her for a long time.

"S-stop!" Taichi stammers.

Our attention snaps back to our drunk friends. Taichi's holding onto Mimi's wrist from slapping the glass down again. While Mimi is staring daggers at him, looking him directly in the eye with unadulterated fury.

"Do you have something against lesbians?" Mimi dangerously hisses at Taichi as he cowers back. "What's wrong with two women loving each other? If they love each other, let them! You shouldn't discriminate you...you old man!"

"Old man?" I repeat to myself at the lame comeback. I kind of wanted something more brutal than that. It's bad that I'm finding this really amusing, but as I cast a side glance at Sora, I know she's getting a kick out of this too.

"I'm sorry that my ex-girlfriend left me for another woman!" Taichi yells. He gets Mimi to stop talking, as well as the rest of the small bar who are now eying him in pity. "From now on, maybe I should marry my darn brother-in-law? What do you say, Yamato?"

"Leave me out of this," I snort, turning back to Sora. "What were we talking about again? Oh right...pads, yes? I think talking about pads is a more interesting topic that dealing with these nutcases."

Sora gazes at me, incredulously. "And you think talking about pads is a captivating conversation for normal people?"

"We're normal when they're next to us," I scoff.

She's bursts into laugher again, making my irritation dissipate into thin air. The sound of her laughter is short-lived when Mimi hastily screams out.

"I'M SO SORRY!"

Mimi dives onto Taichi, tightly strangling him into a hug as she begins to noisily sob into his shoulder. I give a cough when I see Taichi's arms fall around the drunk lady. He looks at her deeply through his blurred vision and licks his lips. His eyes shut, holding her closer and as he's taking in the scent of her perfume, I know I have to rescue him out of this.

As I aim for Taichi's collar, he's already made his sneaky advance. And, ironically, Mimi's following his lead. Right now they're behaving like sinful teenagers with their tongues battling in each other's mouth in a hormonal, liquor-driven desperation. When his hands rest on her hips and she's running a hand up his shirt, I look away.

Shit.

"Let them get it out of their system," Sora mutters. "It's better not to watch because Mimi gets more devious when there are people looking."

"I was more worried about my friend. They're equally as bad as each other."

"A-huh." Sora gives a grin.

We talk a bit more. I don't even remember what we're talking about. One conversation transits from one to another. She's entertaining in her own sense. While Mimi seems to be the more dominant person in their friendship, there is a hidden dry wit that Sora possesses which makes her equally, or more, intriguing. Every word that comes out from her lips are precious. If I hadn't been listening to her properly, I would have missed her sense of humour. I don't recall the last time I've laughed this much.

We drone out the making-out couple until their untamed attraction spikes up again, causing Taichi's beer to spill all over the counter. Right now I wish nobody knew that I'm associated with Taichi at all. The bartender's unimpressed. He's looking at me, pleading. I can't even claim not knowing my best-friend because everybody has seen me with him the whole time.

I weigh up the options in front of me. I could call a cab and get security to assist me taking the idiot away? But I don't want to. I could ditch Taichi by himself? I couldn't...he'd be alone then. If I had planned to do that, I wouldn't have gone out with him at all tonight. However, he has Mimi now. And, after all, I do want to spend more time talking to Sora. There's an unspoken chemistry that makes me feel comfortable around her. I can't just let her disappear...

Then what am I meant to do?

The bartender continues to scowl at my direction. I gulp. I need to take action before they call security on us and once security is here, that means that my night is over...and I haven't even asked for her number yet – or Facebook. That's what they use these days, right? How am I meant to know? I scratch my head, pondering which solution is the best way to go around this without sounding like a douche.

Sora's gaze meets mine, as if we're reading each other minds. She takes out her car keys and whispers softly, so softly that I can vaguely hear her voice. "Wanna ditch them?"

I give a sly smile. "I wouldn't call it ditching if we leave them together."

So we do.

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 **(a/n)** I don't know what to make of this. This was a spur of the moment story, which knocked on my head last night. I was meant to be writing the next chp to my other Sorato story...but this kept wanting to be written xD I hope you enjoyed it. Splashes of Michi here too. This will most likely stay a One-Shot.

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Happy Valentine's Day! ;)


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